Tuesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
The master invites all the people of means in his town to a great dinner party. The invited guests refuse the invitation citing excuses that don’t pass muster. In response, the master commands his servant to fill each seat at the table with people who live without means until there is no room for any of those who declined the invitation. This story challenges us to think about our relationship to the great feast that is the Kingdom of God in at least two ways.
A very basic level, this story challenges us to recognize that we have a standing invitation to the Kingdom each day. Such an invitation might come in the form of a book of prayers or a rosary sitting on a table that beckons us to pause and to pray and, in our prayer time, to think about what it means to live in the Kingdom today. If the Kingdom is the embodiment of God’s love in the world, how might we be the face of that love today? Perhaps you’ve noticed someone lately who doesn’t seem to be themselves. Maybe you don’t even know them all that well, but you know something is not right. Could you be the face of God to that person today? Or perhaps you’ve noticed the trend toward colder temperatures that your weather app is predicting this week and the person who stands on a corner you drive by each day on your way to work and who holds a sign, asking for help. Could you be the face of God to that person today?
At another level, we are challenged to think about the excuses that we make to ourselves (and to others) for ignoring the call to the Kingdom. What are all the ways we justify ignoring God’s call to dine in the Kingdom? Are we too busy? Too important? Too angry? Too stressed? What are all the reasons we give for not having the time to come to the feast that is daily life as a child of God? Life is full of tasks, and jobs, and worries, and deadlines. And now that October has become November, we find that we are already behind in preparations for the holiday season. After all, the pre-lit artificial Christmas trees have been blinking their lights at us at Costco since early October! What are the obstacles we put into our own way that make it hard for us even to see the daily invitations God puts right in front of us to join in God’s love, grace, and mercy—to dine at God’s abundant table.
It is altogether too hard these days to see the Kingdom of God in our world. And it is altogether too easy for us to make excuses to ourselves about why we don’t live into it each day. Jesus is calling us to stop with the excuses and be the face of God in this world right now. May it be so.
- Sue Trollinger